Expunging a Criminal Record in New Jersey

[JerseyMarine]

Legal Services of New Jersey offers a great booklet that explains the process by which a person convicted of certain offenses in NJ can go about having his or her criminal record expunged. The booklet is entitled Clearing Your Record--2004 Edition and includes the forms necessary to file a petition for an expungement without an attorney. The booklet also provides easy to understand, step-by-step instructions. (They make it very easy!) The booklet costs $15.00.

What follows is a link from The Legal Services website and which explains the expungement process in New Jersey:

http://www.lsnjlaw.org/english/crime...yourrecord.cfm

What follows is the order form that you can use to order this booklet (The following link is in PDF form):

http://www.lsnj.org/PDFs/orderform.pdf

What follows is a link to some of the relevant New Jersey statutes that touch upon the issue of expunging a criminal record in New Jersey:

http://www.njexpungements.com/nj-exp...ts-the-law.htm

If anyone is interested in contacting Legal Services directly, their contact information is as follows:

Legal Services of New Jersey
P.O. Box 1357
Edison, NJ 08818-1357
(732) 572-9100
Publications@lsnj.org

If you are legally qualified to obtain an expungement (Please see the links above for more information), obtaining an expungement is a very simple process that can be done quite easily without an attorney. Moreover, obtaining an expungement in NJ often does not require a court appearance. The entire process takes about 3 months from start to finish. The filing fee (paid to the Clerk of the Superior Court) is $52.50. You will also have to spend about $100 in postage for the Certified Letters that you will be mailing to various police departments, courts and prosecutors. (You have to show proof to the Court that you made all interested parties aware of your desire to obtain an expungement.)

Once an expungement is obtained, the petitioner will receive in the mail a Court Order signed by a Superior Court Judge. Although the order is about four pages long, the most important paragraph in that order will read as follows:

"It is further ordered that the arrests which are the subject of this Order shall be deemed not to have occurred, and the petitioner may answer accordingly any question relating to its occurrence(s)..."

It short, once an expungement is obtained in New Jersey, not only are all records of arrest and conviction expunged (erased), a person can legally state that he or she has never been arrested or convicted of a crime. (Please see the links above for more specific information.) Incidentally, arrests that don't result in a conviction will remain on your record forever unless expunged.

I hope this post might be of some use to someone in New Jersey. If anyone has any questions regarding this matter, please feel free to contact me. Although I am certainly not a lawyer, I will do the best I can to help steer you towards someone that can answer your question(s). Good luck!

[vicky427]

Tks for this info I am sure some PTO'ers will benefit from this ...

[egs]

Great info!!! Thanks

[Nalcomis]

Thanks for the info.. Im in the process of trying to have my record expunged... wish me luck.. Idaho is a tough state...but really.. your script is cool.. thanks